OUR IDENTITY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”

Romans 1:1-6

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If someone asked you to share your identity, what would you say?

I think the question could be answered in many different kinds of ways.

First, a person may identify with their ancestry. They could say they are the son or daughter of a parent or parents. This conversation might be had in a smaller town where everyone seems to know everyone.

A person may associate themselves with their employment. We often here people pose the question, “So what do you do?” which is an inquiry about their means of vocation. The response would link a person to a certain group of workers and share information about some of the skills the person possessed. 

I spent a lot of time in the military serving my country and was in the Navy. Of course, there were also other service branches, each with their own distinct cultures so a person would associate themselves from an identity standpoint with the service branch they served in. 

And certainly today, we find people identifying with race, gender, and definitely political affiliation probably more that the first two items mentioned combined. We seem to be so polarized in society today and much of this polarization is grounded in identity and the associated principles attached to that identity.

So again, what is your identity?

As we open up study of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find him answer the question for himself and show us how all Christians should respond to any questions regarding how who and what they most identify with. Look again at the opening of his letter in the first six verses:

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son, who as to His earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”

Here we find Paul waste no time telling his readers about how he wishes to be recognized. He starts his salutation with these important 19 words:

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God…”

Paul could have shared a lot about himself but his identity wasn’t about him. It was all about Jesus.

Paul wanted the Romans to know that he was a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ above anything else and that God had set him apart, or sanctified him, to share the Gospel. His life work was invested in God, Jesus, and those They led him to. He was dedicated and committed to selfless sacrifice for the cause of others just as was the Savior who He served.

Note that the Gospel wasn’t something that should have been a surprise to anyone because it had been “promised beforehand” by God “through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures” who prophesied about Jesus, God’s Son. Paul goes on to share that Jesus, in “His earthly life”, had been “a descendant of David” and “through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God”. This appointment was done “in power” through Jesus’ “resurrection from the dead” when he became “Jesus Christ our Lord”.

Again, it should not be discounted how Paul is placing all the emphasis on Jesus, the One he served.

So what did Jesus bring to the people of God as Lord over all?

One thing was delegation of responsibility to those He called to serve Him. To those like Paul and the twelve disciples who formed Jesus’ inner circle as He began His earthly ministry, Jesus granted “grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake” which was just another way of saying that Jesus had commissioned others to share the good news about Himself with others.

Who were the others?

Well, the Romans Paul wrote to were in that category. They were counted among the Gentiles, which in the Bible were people who weren’t Jewish. Paul lets his readers know that it was they who were “called to belong to Jesus Christ” and therefore this is why he was writing. Since he couldn’t be there in person, he nonetheless wanted to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

And this is how we start this study of Romans with the knowledge of Paul’s identity in Jesus and how that identification led to his life’s work for the cause of the Gospel.

Through his words, all Christians are reminded how they should respond to the question, “What’s your identity?” For we are in Christ and He is in us, and has called us to serve Him for the cause of the Gospel so to help others find their salvation. We need to live out the Christ that is in Christian in everything we do.

As a Christian, He is to be our primary identity.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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